Returned to the Human Anatomy Lab and positioned myself at the head of the gurney looking from the top of the cadaver towards the abdomen and lower features. The scalp had been pulled off of the skull and draped over the face. The top of the skull was removed and the brain was also removed.
so my challenge is to clarify what I’m looking at. As the dissections take place over several weeks, even months and the students are removing skin, muscles, bones, vessels and other features to examine internal structures, it can get quite tricky to identify anatomical features and produce drawings in which there is a clear understanding of what one is looking at. The above drawings depict the head, neck and upper thoracic region and a feature you might expect to see are the clavicle bones.
However, in all three drawings there is some mystery as to what has become of the two bones, each which rest one end on the top of a shoulder and the other on the top of the sternum. In the view on and inverted marble sculpture, you can see the distinctive ridge of each which are also connected to the neck by the powerful sternocleidomastoid muscle which attaches to the lower rear of the mastoid process of the skull situated behind the ear.
so in the top drawing and the following detail of that drawing, you can see a continuous boney ridge between the the exposed cavity below the rib cage and the scale which rest on the cadaver’s face. But how can this be? The clavicle consist of two bones which rest on the top of the sternum and crest the U shape you witness beneath the Adam’s Apple.
It’s quite obvious my drawing has created confusion and the question is,”What is the structure as illustrated. I ran out of time to further investigate and more closely examine the feature and therefore its role in the architecture of the upper thoracic region and the neck in particular. It also goes to the heart of what is the challenge of drawing how one perceives the visual world, and the role of interpretation of visual phenomena.
The next entry in Butt Nellie Doodles will expand this inquiry.